


Take some time off, you idiot!

by xyzan21



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Bickering, Gen, M/M, Minor Injuries, can be read as romantic/pre-slash or platonic, for Merlin's standards at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:28:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27028108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xyzan21/pseuds/xyzan21
Summary: Something has been off about Merlin lately. Arthur decides to wait for him in the physician’s quarters to get some answers.
Relationships: Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 239





	Take some time off, you idiot!

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tell Me What Ails You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24987052) by [1creativeusernameplease](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1creativeusernameplease/pseuds/1creativeusernameplease). 



> Guess who’s back, back again. Well at least with one fic. I’m too busy to write lately which sucks but oh well. Also I couldn't think of a better title so...  
> Hope you enjoy!   
> It was inspired by chapter 11 of Tell Me What Ails You.

Arthur was sitting in Gaius’ quarters waiting for his manservant to arrive. Something had been off about him lately.

Of course, Arthur noticed the moods his manservant was in sometimes. Usually though they only lasted for short periods of time. Mostly until someone brought it up and then Merlin would go back to his happy self.

Arthur wondered sometimes how much of his cheerful persona was just an act he put on for the sake of others. Then again what could Merlin possibly have to make him so sullen? It wasn’t like he had that much to do. Sure, he was the Kings manservant and assistant to the court physician but that didn’t explain it.

And this last week in particular, Merlin just seemed… off. He was more tired than usual. Arthur couldn’t fathom why. Nothing special was happening in the near future nor had something of particular interest just happened. Actually, it had been surprisingly quiet lately. Well, quiet for Camelot’s standards anyway.

So here Arthur was, sitting in the pitch-dark in the physician’s quarters all by himself in the dead of night (alright it was like ten, not quite the dead of night but he was exhausted and bored out of his mind) waiting for his pesky manservant. Honestly, what was taking him so long?

Gaius wasn’t here, thankfully. Arthur really didn’t want to explain this to him. To be frank he had no clue _where_ the physician was but right now it suited his intensions well enough. Subsequently, he didn’t give it all too much thought.

Just as he was about to lose his patience and leave, Arthur heard footsteps on the stairs outside. There was the faint noise of voices and the door swung open. He listened as Merlin cheerfully wished someone goodnight and laughed at their response. 

As soon as the door closed, Merlin’s cheerful mood disappeared. His posture slumped. He leaned his head against the door and sighed. He looked bone tired. Taking a deep breath Merlin made his way over to one of the only tables that wasn’t completely covered and deposited what he was carrying. Arthur’s armour, he realised.

Then Merlin, still in the pitch-darkness, walked, or more like limped Arthur noted, over to a shelf and took out several bottles. After putting them down on a different, smaller table he crouched down to retrieve a metal bowl from someplace on the ground Arthur hadn’t even realised existed. How Merlin and Gaius could find anything here was truly a wonder.

Lastly, Merlin got a cloth and something Arthur couldn’t quite make out. What on earth was his manservant doing?

Merlin, seemingly deciding against sitting down, leant on the edge of the tabletop. His figure was bathed in moonlight making it easier to see at least some of what he was doing.

He poured the contents of one of the bottles into the metal bowl and hitched up his tunic. He had his back to Arthur and as a result, he couldn’t make out exactly what he was doing but he got the idea after Merlin dipped the cloth into the liquid and dabbed it against his skin.

The cloth came away pink.

The idiot was injured and he hadn’t said anything!

Merlin continued cleaning out his _wounds_ apparently. How often had Merlin done this? By the way he was showing no sign of distress and seemed to be working on autopilot he gathered that this was by far not the first time Merlin had done this.

Of course, he worked with Gaius and hence knew how to take care of wounds but it was still different when you were dealing with your own wounds.

After the wounds were cleaned to his satisfaction Merlin took to prodding at his skin, only tensing mildly at the pain. Arthur thought he was finished now. Surely, Merlin wasn’t stupid enough to work when he was seriously injured?

Then Merlin started pulling at something. Arthur stared at his figure uncomprehending at first, then he saw what Merlin had just pulled at.

_Where those stitches?!_

It was decided, his manservant really was an imbecile.

Oh great! Now Merlin was stitching himself back together.

How had Arthur not noticed that Merlin was in pain before? Maybe he should give Merlin some more credit, it seemed he was actually very good at keeping secrets and acting.

Merlin grabbed a smaller bottle of what was probably some type of tincture and used the pipette to apply some of the liquid. 

He sat down, finally, and directed his attention towards his right leg.

No.

No surely, _surely_ Merlin would not traipse around the whole castle, following Arthur around all day and do chores which included carrying _heavy armour and weapons_ when he had a messed-up leg.

Right?

It appears that he was wrong once again. Merlin did always like to prove him wrong.

Merlin rolled up the leg of his breeches and… _where those fucking claw marks?_ _Where the bloody hell had Merlin even stumbled across a creature with claws that long?!_

The back and side of his (surprisingly toned) calf was a scratched mess caked in dried blood. It was a wonder Merlin could still stand. And that the beast hadn’t shredded anything important... At least Arthur hoped it hadn’t. At this point he wouldn’t be surprised if it had and Merlin had just kept going to be contrary.

Merlin cleaned this up as well with the same eery calm he had whatever wounds graced his front. More tincture and Arthur hoped those were the last of his injuries. This was just getting ridiculous now.

Before moving Merlin stared at his thigh and then just poured the rest of the tincture over a spot on the middle of his thigh…. Ok then.

He pushed of the bench and started cleaning up after himself, putting away the bowl after disposing of the liquid inside and the old stitches. He returned the bottles back to their original place (at least Arthur guessed it was, he really had no idea, this place was to confusing) and set the empty bottles to the side.

Merlin stopped near the front door, there was a nail in the wall with parchment hanging off it. He started scribbling down something, probably what he had just used up, and scrubbed his other hand through his hair before dragging it down his face. He turned his face into his shoulder and stifled a yawn.

Abruptly Merlin started moving around again, making his way over to where he had left Arthur’s armour. Surely the idiot wouldn’t polish and repair his armour after he had literally just stitched himself back together?

Apparently, that was exactly what Merlin was planning on doing. He sat down sideways on the bench, then heaved his injured leg over the bench and turned towards the table to start working.

Arthur had well and truly had enough now. He cleared his throat and Merlin froze; his whole body tensed. Then just as suddenly his body relaxed.

Without turning to face him Merlin spoke: “Hello Arthur. Is there something I can help you with? I wasn’t expecting you here, especially not at this time.”

“There is something you could help me with. I was hoping you could explain something to me, _Mer_ lin.”

“Oh, and what would that be, Sire?”

“I was hoping you could tell me why my manservant, who is clearly injured in several places, decided it would be a good idea to continue working instead of taking sometime off to heal. And where and when he could have possibly been injured in the first place.”

“Taking some time off? Is that a new concept? I’ve never heard of it before. Maybe I should ask my employer about it sometime. I don’t think I’ve ever had any,” Merlin answered calmly.

“If you had told me you were injured, I would have given you time off.”

“No, you would have told me to suck it up and stop being such a girl. Don’t deny it, Arthur,” he said when Arthur opened his mouth to argue. “You would have and you know it. Don’t come to yell at me when I did exactly what you would have told me to do in the first place.”

“How do you know what I would have told you to do,” he demanded.

Merlin gave him an unimpressed look. “I have been at your side for how long now? I know how your mind works, Arthur. I bet I know you better than you know yourself or at least as well as you know yourself. And we have been through this song and dance often enough that I know what you would have answered.”

“If I had known you were injured this badly, I would have given you time off, Merlin.”

Merlin shrugged with one shoulder. “Perhaps.”

“Actually, I am a little offended that you think so lowly of me. That you are under the impression that I would make you work while you are in serious pain.”

Merlin’s gaze was razor sharp when he looked at Arthur again. “You should know by now that I do not think lowly of you. In fact, I believe that I have been your greatest supporter. I know that if I was well and truly suffering you would not let me work. But now is not one of those times. I am alright.”

“You mean to tell me that you aren’t suffering right now?” Arthur demanded.

Again, Merlin did his one shouldered shrug. “I’ve had worse this isn’t so bad.”

“You’ve had _worse_?” Arthur asked quietly, slowly.

Merlin’s face scrunched together, realising his misstep before smoothing out his expression not even a second later. “Ah. Well. Right now, I’m fine. The wounds aren’t so bad.”

“Speaking of, where did you get those from? You still didn’t tell me.”

Merlin hesitated a split second before answering simply: “The woods.”

Arthur waited for Merlin to elaborate but apparently that was all the explanation he was going to get out of Merlin.

“Besides,” he continued before Arthur could question him further on the topic. “I have work to do. It’s not like you can take care of yourself. Which is actually slightly disconcerting seeing as you are the ruler of a kingdom but oh well. You can’t have it all, I suppose.”

“George could have taken over for a few days,” Arthur grumbled.

Merlin shrugged: “You can’t stand him. Besides, he always messes up my system. I can never find anything after he was there for a day or even a few hours.”

“You have a system?” Arthur deadpanned.

Merlin shot him a look. “Ha ha, very funny. Yes, I have a system. I know exactly where everything is. And it is more practical if nobody else understands it. It takes them a lot more time to find what they want and thus are more likely to be caught if they’re up to something strange.”

Arthur snorted. “Sure, keep telling yourself you do it to save me from evil doers. And not just because you are an unorganised swine.” 

“Pfft, please. There is a method to my madness. I have a great mentor after all.” Merlin gestured to the complete chaos of Gaius’ workroom.

“I can agree to the madness part of the statement, the method part however,” Arthur made a face and made a so-so gesture with his hand, “is still questionable.”

“Honestly, you don’t appreciate my genius enough. Everything you need happens, doesn’t it? Does it really matter that much that the way I do it is a little different than the way most of the other servants would do it?”

Instead of answering he just rolled his eyes. It was true enough. Merlin always pulled through in the end even if the way he did it was strange and seemingly nonsensical.

“Well at least there’s never a dull moment with you,” Arthur said condescendingly, carefully patting Merlin’s shoulder. He didn’t want to hurt him any further after all. 

“I’ll take that as a complement.”

“Of course you would. It just further goes to show how damaged your brain is. Maybe this finally was too much for even your weird mind to handle and you lost all your marbles.”

“Please, I’m perfectly fine and in working order. Nothing to complain about here.”

“Yeah sure. So fine that you didn’t even notice that someone else was here until I announced my presence. What would you have done if I had been an assassin?”

Merlin scoffed: “If you were an assassin, I would have noticed you.”

“Yes, I’m sure you would have. Either while I jumped out and attacked you or when you were already dying.”

“No,” Merlin rolled his eyes, “I would have noticed because you wouldn’t have belonged here. And your presence would be unfamiliar. But I’m around you nearly all day every day and I’ve grown so used to your presence that if I don’t pay attention, I don’t even notice if you’re somewhere I wouldn’t expect you to be.”

Arthur crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows. “Oh, so now you can feel _presences_? I think you’re suffering from blood loss. Which isn’t all too surprising considering that you are bleeding in several places and still decided to work, you idiot.”

“Speaking of work. Do you mind? I still need to polish and mend your armour. And I really want to sleep so if you could just,” Merlin raised his hands and made a shooing gesture.

“I am the King, Merlin. You can’t just,” Arthur repeated the shooing gesture, “me. And what about this conversation didn’t make its way through that thick skull of yours? You aren’t working today any more. Or any time in the near future for that matter. You are to stay here and rest until I and Gaius tell you, you can return back to work. I will have someone collect my armour tomorrow morning or better yet,” Arthur walked over to the door and signalled to the next servants that walked by to enter.

“Please take this to my chambers. I will deal with it afterwards,” he gestured to his armour. “Oh and please inform George that he will be needed tomorrow.” Once the servants left, he explained. “So you don’t get tempted.”

Merlin rolled his eyes. “How kind of you, Sire. I don’t know how I would have resisted the urge to polish and mend your armour otherwise.” 

Arthur frowned, something just having occurred to him: “Does Gaius actually know that you’re injured?”

Merlin shrugged. “He knows that I’ve been using up his supplies but not to what extent I am injured.”

Arthur huffed in frustration. “Tell me next time you’re injured and can’t work. I do not want this happening again, do you understand? If you are hurt you rest.”

“Fine, the next time I’m too injured to work I will let you know.”

“That is not what I said.”

Merlin rolled his eyes: “Do you want to know about every injury I get? Should I tell you the next time I stub my toe too?”

“You are impossible. Fine, fine. Tell me when you are too injured to work. I will give you a list tomorrow as what counts as too injured to work. Because clearly, you have no idea what that means.”

Merlin frowned. “You need to sleep. Make the list tomorrow. George shouldn’t have to deal with you when you’re cranky because you didn’t get enough sleep. Poor guy will have a hard-enough time as it is.”

“I do not get cranky!”

Merlin sent him a _look_. “Of course not, Sire.”

“And I’m not the only one who needs to sleep. Go on, off to bed you go. You are on bed rest now. Kings orders.”

“When do I ever listen to you?” Merlin said, already walking up the stairs to his chambers slowly. He always had to be contrary, damn him.

Arthur quickly scribbled a note informing Gaius that he had ordered Merlin to stay at home and rest for the time being. He didn’t trust Merlin not to show up tomorrow otherwise.

Once he was sure Merlin well and truly went to bed Arthur left, already mentally composing the lengthy list Merlin would receive tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> I read through this whole thing exactly one time. Was it ok?


End file.
